Education and training for radiation emergency medical management in Japan

Abstract

The radiation emergency medical management are very rarely called upon. The points of our greatest concern on those occasions, are traumatized patients contaminated with radioactive substances. Such patients are in need of emergency medical care, where the medical team is inexperienced in treating cases of radiation contamination. After the criticality accident of a uranium fuel fabrication facility at Tokai-mura in 1999, the medical system for radiation accidents in Japan has thoroughly changed. On request by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, we have conducted medical education and training on how to treat emergency cases of radiation accidents for the people concerned with emergency medicine, namely medical doctors, nurses, radiation technicians, emergency rescue squads, and health physicists in nuclear power plants. Education and training have been carried out repeatedly at 35 cities and towns for the last 5 years. The contents of education and training were lectures, simulation exercises and practical exercises. As a result, more than 80% of medical facilities held responsible for the primary treatment of victims of radiation accidents replied they can handle the cases with skill and knowledge in treating traumatized patients accompanied by radiation contamination without feeling undue stress of radiation. Education and training are continually conducted in cooperation with the experts of radiation emergency medicine such as Nagasaki University.